Responding to Risks

WHO / Fredrik Naumann

Welcome to Module 8,
Unit 3
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

Explain the concept of risk appetite

Outline ways you can choose to respond to

a risk

Explain why you monitor the response action

and may need to escalate a risk

WHO / Blink Media - Neil Nuia

Risk Appetite

WHO / NOOR / Arko Datto

Defining Risk Appetite

–
Reduce potential
problems to an
acceptable level + Maximizing
opportunities

IM
What is Acceptable Risk?
Risk Appetite and You

Don’t avoid risks at all costs

Take well-informed risks

DOA
Risk Response Actions

WHO / Mark Nieuwenhof

Risk Response Actions

Risk response action

Choosing a Response

Tolerate

Mitigate

Transfer

Terminate

Exploit
Tolerate

Exposure is tolerable in terms of

effect on the objectives

Mitigation is outside WHO’s control

Contingency
planning The cost of mitigation would
Tolerate
exceed the potential benefit
Mitigate

Strengthening existing
preventative measures

Developing new actions to reduce

the risk to acceptable levels

Mitigate Changing the scope of activities

Transfer

Works well with financial risk or

risks to assets

Relationship with the third party

needs to be carefully managed
Third party
Consider financial loss, objectives,
Transfer reputational risk, long-term
implications
Terminate

Assessment of the impact

More active decision than being

overly risk averse
Terminate
Exploit

Planning for additional activities

where unexpected budget space is
anticipated in a project

Exploit
Risk Response Actions
Risk Mitigation Plan

Must be implemented

Should be regularly monitored

Essential that they are linked to

the Budget Centre’s work plan
Monitoring the Risk
Response Actions

WHO / Blink Media - Amanda Mustard

Importance of Monitoring the Risk

Rewards of
Accountable for the successfully seizing
consequences opportunities

Responsible for monitoring

whether the risk response
action is taking place
What Can Monitoring Reveal

Changes in the assumptions of likelihood or

1 impact of the uncertainty

Changes in which objectives are affected by the

2 risk criticality

Evidence that the risk response action is being

3 carried out as planned

Whether the event is occurring less often or with

4 milder impact than was initially estimated
Why Escalate a Risk and its Response Action?

Other teams in the

response Criticality
changed
Another level in the
three levels of WHO
Objectives Escalation
affected
Member State
How to Escalate a Risk

WHO has a system for escalating risks and a governance

structure for dealing with the biggest risks across the
Organization and in a specific response.
© WHO / Jess Hoffman
How to Escalate a Risk

Escalation
IM

Country Regional Headquarters

Summary

Tolerate
Prevent the risk
Mitigate
Reduce the impact
Transfer
Require monitoring
Terminate
Must be escalated if
required
Exploit
You have now completed
this video on responding
to risks.

Try the End-of-Unit Quiz to recap what you have learned.

WHO / Olivier Asselin